To my friend Debbie. You are in a much better place.

6

The last 5 years have been very hard on my friend. She had asthma. To treat the asthma they gave her a new drug to treat it. With a very depressed immune system she trusted the doctors and hospital staff. All went well for 6 mos. then a very funny (not) thing happened. She developed a form of TB and then had to be treated for it. A year later it was deemed cured. We started doing some research on the drugs she was given and found many disturbing warnings.( I don't have the names but you can find in the warnings of many possible side affects in any PDR and drug warning labels.) Several of the medications given for the asthma one of the side effects where it might cause TB and cancer and other problems. After she was treated for the TB one of the side effects of those medicines was it might cause cancer in patients. (noticed cancer both times.) We all were very concerned and she went and talked to her many doctors. They all assured her that it was a concern but the risk was small and at the time that was the best way to treat her at the time given the knowledge at the time for her asthma. A complete screening was done and only her asthma was now the problem. Come back in 6 mos. and we will recheck you. If you have any problems go back to your regular doctor. She did. Asthma flare ups and sinus infections. When she went back for her 6 mo. check up low and behold she was told she had stage 4 lung cancer and that they will try and treat it but to get her affairs in order because the success rate is about nil at this time but there is hope because researcher's are finding new cures all the time. In 6 mos she went from ok to stage 4 cancer. She lost the fight 3 days ago. My neighbor who had her child vaccinated almost lost her first child and now he is being treated for Atusim. Her second child was vaccinated with a chemical free and responsible vaccine that doesn't have all the junk in them and for very few problems like polio and a few others. Her second son is fine and very healthy. The cost in these 2 families is enormous not to mention the total cost for health care insurance and education alone. So in the future when you hear me go off the deep end and rant my little heart out you will understand and maybe it will help you to advoid the same problems with your family or friends. Fool On my friend Fool On.

Investors in Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN) and Cell Genesys (Nasdaq: CEGE) who were hoping their companies would have the world's first approved cancer vaccine are going to have to duke it out for the U.S. title. Yesterday, Antigenics (Nasdaq: AGEN) claimed the world title with the Russian approval of its kidney cancer vaccine, Oncophage.

This isn't a vaccine in the traditional sense -- it doesn't keep patients from getting cancer. Cancer vaccines induce the patient's immune system to attack the tumor after the patient has already been afflicted with cancer.

There's apparently a very simple reason that Antigenics went to Russia to gain approval for Oncophage: There's no way that the U.S. would approve the treatment given its current data. Its phase 3 trial failed to show that Oncophage could slow down the recurrence of kidney cancer after surgery.

The company reanalyzed the data and found that a subset of patients -- those who have lower-stage tumors and thus a better prognosis of survival without treatment -- responded well to the drug. Oncophage improved the chance of cancer not recurring in this subset of patients by 45%.

However, the FDA doesn't accept subset analyses for support of marketing applications. Such analysis is just an observation, not actually testing of a hypothesis. Of course, the company's observation could become a testable hypothesis. If Oncophage were to be tested in just these better-prognosis subjects in another trial, it could lead to FDA approval. Instead, Antigenics decided to try to get the drug approved in Russia and, possibly, the European Union.

Whether they have a different scientific method in Russia or they're just willing to take a flier on an unproven treatment, I don't know. Either way, Antigenics plans to begin selling the drug starting in the second half of this year.

Hopefully, it'll be able to use the money it makes off treatments in Russia and fund another trial. Until then, U.S. kidney cancer patients will just have to stick with proven conventional treatments like Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) Sutent and Onyx Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: ONXX) Nexavar. Or fly to Moscow for the unproven stuff.

Clenbuterol probably would have treated her asma and made her stronger and leaner, however drug companies and doctors don't necessarily look to the patients best interests and often only look to mask symptoms rather than cure problems...